Which mode do you use most when you're taking shots? Being only a 6 day old owner of the k100d, I'm still toying around and trying to find which mode works best for me. So I'm just asking to see what my fellow pentax owners shoot in. For me right now, I've mostly been messing around with Av and TV mode. Sometimes I try to M mode, but not as much.

Also, do most of you use AWB, or do you use the custom WB? If you use custom, how do you go about setting it up for shots?

General walk-around pictures I use P. If I want a specific effect (DOF etc.) I'll use Av or Tv, depending on what I want to accomplish.

Outdoors I'll use AWB. Indoors and difficult lighting conditionson the K100 I'll use custom WB - with the exception of one of the flourescent light options, I didn't particularly care for its presets (tungsten isn't quite right). Occasionally I'll use either the shade or cloudy setting, but most often get a bit frustrated with them too.

To set the custom WB, select it, then follow the menu prompts. All you need is something white to aim the camera at - I've used a white piece of paper, a white car (not necessarily a good choice, some of the white cars aren't really white), the white space on a sign in a shopping mall, and the white plastic of a baby's high chair. Or better yet - go to a camera store and get a proper grey card with a white card on the other side and use that. Only takes a couple of seconds to set it.

I usually shoot in AV with autowhite balance. Outdoors I run in jpg. Indoors I switch to RAW and fix it with photoshop. That combo seems the easiest and gives me the best quality without too much hassle.

Also, do most of you use AWB, or do you use the custom WB? If you use custom, how do you go about setting it up for shots?

even with someone telling you , it's best to RTFM

Trust me Robar, I do "READ THE F*CKING MANUAL" And a few other books that I own, and I also got from the library... :G

I understand how to set it up, but after the point of using the white/grey card or etc. Is there more to be done, or does the camera do the rest after you set it up? I don't recall seeing anything about that in the FM. :-) Even the camera says how to set it up when you click on MWB. But I haven't tried to us MWB yet. I guess I worded my question wrong.

Wow guys lighten up! You need to play with it yourself and see what happens when you change settngs on the WB. No one can tell you how to set if for what you like.

If I have questionable WB issues, I alway shoot in RAW so I can fix it in PP anyway, otherwise I just use AWB and it works perfectly, but YMMV.

Tom

Oh trust me Tom, I'm not trying to come off like a jerk or anything. like that. And I'm not taking it as Robar was either. That's why i added the smiley's so he would know I was responding in a joking way.

And I wasn't looking to copies others setups, or have somebody setup my camera. Just was curious what others used.